


At Least We're Together Again

by Kaoupa



Category: Over the Garden Wall (Cartoon & Comics), Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Character Death, F/M, Near Death Experiences, Not Really Character Death, The Unknown (Over the Garden Wall)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-10
Updated: 2019-03-10
Packaged: 2019-11-15 07:01:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18068792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaoupa/pseuds/Kaoupa
Summary: The Earth is gone. The world has ended. But people are harder to get rid of.Sort of inspired by "Marooned Together", but can probably be read separately.





	At Least We're Together Again

**Author's Note:**

  * For [E350tb](https://archiveofourown.org/users/E350tb/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Marooned Together](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14591640) by [E350tb](https://archiveofourown.org/users/E350tb/pseuds/E350tb). 



> Wirt and Beatrice are sort of side characters, to be honest - I probably should have given them more screen time, but the story was focused on the SU side of things, mostly. Since the story is based off Marooned Together. 
> 
> Also, there isn't really that much angst in this, honestly, and maybe I should have added more - but on the other hand, well, I guess I was inspired by Discworld here. It's kind of harder to be afraid of death after you've died and you realize that you're still around, in a sense. Of course, I am not sure that I'm much good at angst anyways. 
> 
> And yes, Greg and Rose are in love - but here, the love stuff mostly just consists of having a shoulder to cry on and a friend to have.

The world was breaking apart.

Humanity wasn’t sure why, for the most part - the stories coming over the news were of all sorts of conspiracy theories, or people saying that it was the Day of Judgement. More than a few of them had seen the ships that were landing though, bringing - or forcing - humans on board, in an attempt to capture or save them.

Almost nobody was certain why this was happening.

Greg did know why, though.

The Diamonds had interfered.

The Cluster was emerging.

They’d failed.

It was… odd, maybe, how calm he felt, then. Knowing that he was going to die - he’d been separated from Steven and Connie, as well as the gems, early on when the tremors had started. Hopefully, at the least they’d be safe.

Well, it wasn’t like he thought that death was where he would end. He’d seen too much to not believe that something came next. He wasn’t exactly sure what the gems thought of the idea - considering they were all immortal and almost never had to deal with their people dying, they might not even have a concept of something after death.

He did, though. And he wished he’d been able to see Steven one last time, or to go with him and cheer him up. But that was where his regrets ended.

_ Guess I’ll be seeing you sooner than we thought, Rose... _

Then, the ground erupted under his feet, and light of a hundred thousand reflected and refracted colors surged through his vision, and he felt himself get flung backwards.

Who would think an end could be so pretty?

  
  
  


Death, or at least what came after life, looked like a forest.

It was a pretty nice forest, too. 

And it was one that Wirt knew.

“Huh. Guess this place was real after all, huh?” He muttered to himself, walking down the path into the Unknown.

He was only half-certain what had been happening, since the world breaking apart was hardly something that he could miss.

And it wasn’t hard to figure out that he was probably dead now. Or… dead enough, at least.

“Wirt?”

He recognized that voice. He hadn’t heard it for decades, but he remembered it as clear as if he had last heard it yesterday.

“Beatrice?” He asked, whirling around. As he turned, he realized that he… wasn’t as tall as he should have been.

“Wirt!” Beatrice’s voice came again, to Wirt’s surprise. It was rather odd to hear the bird’s voice coming from… well, this young woman in front of him.

Part of him told him to get his eyes off her, that this couldn’t be Beatrice after this long, she couldn’t still be alive and look the same.

The majority of him smacked that part, and said that “we’re not alive, and this place doesn’t seem to care about what couldn’t be.” 

“Sooo, how have you been doing?” He asked awkwardly, as if there wasn’t several decades between the last time they’d met, and a permanent end for Wirt.

She shrugged. “It’s been okay. Adelaide got arrested.”

“Huh.”

There was a pause. “You want to go see if we can find Greg and Jason?”

Wirt smiled. “Just like old times, huh?”

“Actually, I figured this time we could go see the big city. I’ve never been there, honestly.” Beatrice started walking off, seemingly at peace with the world. “Catch up, slowpoke!”

  
  
  


Greg had to admit, he wasn’t too surprised to find himself in the Unknown again.

What was a surprise was the person he saw right after he woke up. “Miss Langtree?” 

The animal school teacher turned around and smiled at him. “Oh, dear Gregory! It’s good to see you here again, it’s been quite a while. And it’s Mrs Langtree now, by the way.”

“Uh, yeah. Good to see you too, ma’am.” Then, Greg realized the last part of what she’d said. “And congratulations!”

“Why thank you, dear. Would you like to help us again? We’ve got so many new students recently that we had to hire six dozen new teachers, and we’re still behind.” Langtree smiled at him.

“Would you mind if I’m the music teacher?” Greg asked, getting up.

“Oh, we could always use another one, yes. We got a new one several years ago, you can work with her, perhaps.” Langtree perked up at a sound Greg didn’t recognize - well, he did, but it sounded like someone was… pounding their chest?

“Jimmy! He’s probably stuck in that suit again… go talk to her, anyways, Greg! Good luck!” And she ran out the door, with Greg looking after her.

“Okay, who will I be working with…” He was slightly curious as he walked out of the side room, into the sunshine, where… 

“Wow…” Greg wasn’t sure what else there was to say, here.

The animal school’s campus had gotten a lot bigger, to say the least.

What had probably been the original schoolhouse was still there - surrounded by several skyscraper-sized buildings. Each of them had a symbol over the main doors symbolizing what they probably taught.

“Gonna guess that’s the music building…” he muttered, seeing a number of drums and musical notes over the main door.

“Good work, everyone! Come back tomorrow, and we’ll see if we can get everything right for next week’s rock concert.” He knew that voice, and practically sprinted through the crowd of animals - at knee height. And then, he burst through the doors.

“Rose?!” 

The large pink gem turned around almost instantly, before frowning. Then, her eyes went down, and she smiled. “Oh, hello there! I’m sorry, you must be confused. This is a school for animals, not humans!”

“Rose, it’s me! Greg!”

  
  
  


Rose Quartz blinked for a few seconds, before looking down at the human child.

He was… short. And he had something on his head - yes, a teapot! That was it, Pearl had been rather fascinated in “tasting” tea for a while, even if she tended to spit it out after she’d done that. And… he was claiming to be Greg?

Well, she had seen stranger things in her life - and coming here had only expanded the list in however long she’d been here.

And she knew humans always got bigger as they were older.

And suddenly, somehow, while she wasn’t sure how it was possible, the child was gone and there he was in front of her.

“Greg!” She pulled him up, and into a hug, nearly crushing him in her arms.

After that there was a short reunion, which had consisted of the two hugging each other for a few  seconds before Rose realized that Greg wasn’t complaining despite how hard she was squeezing. And then mentally shrugging and hugging him again.

(And neither of them would realize it till much later when they talked, but while Rose was the same to both of them, to her Greg had been about his usual adult height, and to Greg Rose had been the size of a giant).

  
  
  


“So, how is everyone doing back on Earth?”

Greg winced. This was… not going to be an easy thing to talk about. “Rose… when did all these animals start coming here? When did the school get so big?”

“You’re trying to change the subject.” Rose replied in a slightly confused tone.

“It might be related, I… guess?” Greg was still trying to figure it out. How… how was he supposed to tell her?

Still carrying a look of confusion on her face, Rose mentally decided to just answer. “A few…” And she paused.

How fast did time pass here again?

“Um… very recently, I think. Very recently, as in even by human standards, I think.” She frowned. Wait, how had they managed to set up all those skyscraper-sized buildings again so quickly?

“Yeah, well… I guess that’s more or less when the Diamonds got the Cluster to blow up Earth.”

This got Rose’s total, undivided, attention. “ **_WHAT?!!_ ** ”

  
  
  


About what felt like a minute later, Greg had given her the story.

The gem who had once been Pink Diamond could only ever remember feeling this way before when Blue, Yellow, and White Diamond had corrupted all of the gems on Earth except her, Pearl, and Garnet. On what had been Earth, once. What had once been her world.

Another destroyed world at the hands of the Diamond Authority. “You’re… sure?”

Greg winced. “I saw the Cluster start emerging right under my feet. I doubt that was the only place it was doing that, and I’m pretty sure that the Diamonds probably weren’t going to be satisfied unless they were really thorough.”

Rose’s head fell. She had...

“Rose, it isn’t your fault what your family did.”

Then it shot up again when Greg spoke. “What are you talking about?” The question (the lie) fell from her lips almost as easily as the story about Bismuth disappearing had. She wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.

Greg looked at her calmly. He wasn’t fooled. “Rose, Pearl told Steven who you used to be. And it’s not your fault that your family is even worse than mine was.”

Rose’s mind blanked out. He - knew?

“Rose, it’s fine. You didn’t do this.” Greg’s voice was the tone of someone who was trying to be soothing now, someone who wasn’t judging.

She didn’t deserve that tone. “I… I let it happen. If I hadn’t-”

Greg placed his hand on her shoulder. “You gave everyone on Earth six thousand extra years. And that’s a lot more than we would have gotten otherwise.” 

And after that, he hugged her. Rose just leaned into him, letting her tears flow again. Neither of them said anything.

Later that time period, that was where Wirt and Beatrice found them.

  
  
  


“So, we’re gonna see the city this time?”

Wirt was amazed how Greg seemed to look like he had the first time he came to the Unknown again. Though his hair had been pretty impressive, under that teapot…

And the woman (Rose) who he’d been talking to didn’t seem to have noticed how small he was. Well, this place had always been… weird. “Yeah, I hope. There’ll probably be a ton of people there - maybe we can find a place to eat!”

“Wait, wouldn’t eating meat, fruit, or vegetables offend at least one person here?” Wirt asked in a puzzled tone.

Beatrice chuckled. “Maybe we can get a nice heaping of dirt, yeah… oh, wait.” She chuckled. Rose had an awkward look on her face.

“Anyways, who says the meat has to come from animals?” Beatrice looked at them with a playful smirk. The other three looked puzzled. “Trust me, you’ll see.” 

“Come back soon, you four! We could always use your help teaching!” Mrs Langtree called. 

And with their spirits lifted, despite what had happened, the four walked off together, into the Unknown.


End file.
